The Alpha Breeder

Chapter 6

PRESENT DAY…

I came around because of the birds chirping loudly. My head ached painfully, the throbbing only got worse when I slowly got up from my position. I was in a wooden bed, surrounded by small pillows covered with a satin fabric adorned with flowers. I could smell the amazing scent of each flower as if they were made only yesterday.

The strange place looked cozy enough for someone to live in. A hearth was lit up by a fire right at the corner of the small cabin. A round table with four chairs is situated in the middle of the place. Plates and cutleries were perfectly lined up on each side. There was a small kitchen cabinet on the other side of the cabin. Pans hanging above, spatulas, and even spices or herbs. The smell of something delicious hit my nose and I noticed that there was something cooking inside the pot on top of the fire stove.

I swallowed when I notice for the first time how much I was starving. Getting up carefully, I adjusted my feet to support me without failing me for the second time. They needed some time, but after wiggling my toes and stretching them a few times, I could finally feel the blood circulating back.

I walked briefly to the table. As I supported myself by leaning using my palm on the edge of the table, I took a look around. There were no paintings of someone. No signs of memories whatsoever. It felt empty, but the warm welcome was there. It probably had everything to do with the open fire, or maybe because this place felt so comfortable.

Trudging forward, I was already halfway to the pot when the door was suddenly open. Sunlight came in, lighting up the small cabin before the door closed back.

I froze like a deer caught in headlights.

I recognized the old woman instantly. She was the same woman who approached me at the beach before I lost consciousness. Alarm blasted immediately in my head, at the fact that someone took me inside their home when I was not fully aware.

Thoughts of them working for Rhys made my anxiety heightened.

“You’re awake.” Her voice sounded rusty and aged with time. The wrinkles on her face were visible even from this distance. The old woman scrutinized me from head to toe. “Are you hurt, child?”

I could not decide whether that was a concern or irritation.

“Are you deaf?” she finally snapped. There was no hint of hostility in her voice though. Only an irritating sound that fit her grumpy exterior. The lady put herself behind the kitchen small cabinet that faced me at the table as she moved all her belongings on top of it. She was carrying a bag made out of ransack and a stick with bells. “Or did you hit your head hard enough that you lost your ability to speak?”

“I-I can speak,” I say hesitantly.

“Well, would you look at that? She speaks!” she throws her hands in the air as a frustrated aunt would. After she was done racking her things and threw the bag on the wooden floor, she put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at me. “Do you happen to have a name, child?”

My name. I wondered if I should tell her my name. Then I realized that even if this woman did not work for Rhys, she would not know my name anyway. Rhys made it obvious that he would never want anyone to know about my existence at all. The people only knew that Rhys had not yet found his true mate and that the King of all Kings spent his nights with different kinds of women to accompany him.

As far as I was concerned, I was only a ghost in his castle.

“Marigold.” My name sounded bitter on my tongue.

I used to think my name was a curse upon me. Especially when my own father sold me for gold. There was nothing gold about me. None at all.

What was there was something worthless. I knew the moment I started to grow more and more, the people around me always treated me like I was no value. It would be no different here, I was sure of it.

The women hummed. She observed me once again. “You need new clothes.”

I looked down and see that I was still wearing the clothes I wore when I escaped. It was heavily dirty, stained with mud and sand. And it dried on my skin. I must have smelled bad too, but my senses were not still fully there.

“I’m sorry,” I murmur softly. “I-l will just go—“

“No, you are not,” the woman snapped again. Her irritated look came back. Almost immediately, she marched over to me and pushed my shoulders down until I was seated in one of the chairs. “You will eat as much as you can. Fill your stomach. Then I’ll see if there are some clothes you can wear. Flint looks like she’s about your size.”

“Flint?”

“My granddaughter,” she hurried back into the kitchen and busied herself with preparing food. “She’s out to the city for a while before she would come back. It would take days but she’s going to sell the little crop we had. It won’t be much, but it would mean a lot. Pepper?”

I decline politely. But soon, my brain caught up with what she said. “The city?”

The old lady nodded. I got up from the chair, looking panicked all of a sudden. If she was in the city, then it could only mean one thing—No. I could not think that way. This old woman is kind enough to give me shelter. I could not condemn her for such a thing.

Besides, I was sure that if she was working for Rhys, he would be here by now, using his big warship to cross the ocean.

“What’s wrong with you?” the old woman clocked her tongue. “You are acting like a trapped rabbit, child.”

“I-I’m fine,” I stuttered.

“Well, about as fine as a trapped rabbit,” she sarcastically replied. “Now sit down, would you? You’re giving me a headache.”

I sat back down if only to calm my racing heart. If she was working with Rhys, he would be here. That much I was sure. Slowly, my breathing came back to normal. I did not think that should this woman really work with Rhys, she would be this friendly and helpful.

Or maybe that was her way to lull you into a false sense of security?

I hoped against everything that this was only my anxious mind talking. I swallowed the fear and asked, “Where would she sell it in the city?”

“Here and there.” She stirred something inside the pot. “Mostly in the market.”

I let out a big relief. The market was relatively far from the castle. Her granddaughter would not be close to Rhys. And if she had, she would not know about me anyway. I needed to stop worrying.

But I would not rest until I think I was far enough for him.

“If she could not sell enough, she would enter the guarded castle and try to plea for a buyer though. Sometimes our crops get bought by their people.”

My heart started hammering again.

No. No. No. No.

She could not get near the castle. I needed to leave. Right this instant. But my feet would not stand up and support me. Especially when the only thing my smelling sense could pick up was whatever it was on the pot. I sat with my heart in my throat when the old lady served me a bowl of hot soup.

“Eat. This is a rare occasion. I assume you would need lots of nutrition. You look like you haven’t eaten in months,” she clicked her tongue in disparagement again. “If you were my granddaughter and you look this thin, I would have you eat every hour until you fill these bones.”

Yeah, well. Your granddaughter was not the one tied up most of the time inside a dungeon or locked in a cage, while forced to watch her mate sleep with another female.

I gingerly took a spoon and had a bite. The soup was the most wonderful thing on earth. I moaned, tasting the rich spices and herbs that were affluent. The taste exploded in my mouth. Before I knew it, I gulped all the soup in the bowl until there was nothing left.

“You want more?” she offered. I did not even have to say yes. She was already pouring more.

I watched as she took a seat across from me. Her graying hair looked like ash. The old woman watched me back with the same observing look from the first time we met. And then she said, “How far along are you?”

I almost choked on the soup.

“What?” I weakly asked.

“How far along are you, child?” she repeated one more time, her voice sounding concerned. For the first time since I met her, she looked genuinely worried for me. Not annoyed. “You are with child, right?”

It was almost funny how she called me “child” but also told me that I was with one. But the humor felt empty in my hollow chest. I nodded. She sighed as if I was her granddaughter instead of a complete stranger.

Suddenly, the soup tasted bland. I pushed away the remaining food from the bowl with my head hanging low.

“And the father?” she questioned.

“We are better off without him,” I told her with a stammering voice.

“There is no child who is better off without either parent!” she scolded me. The irritated look was back on her face. It was quite comical, really. This grumpy old lady taking care of an escapee mate who was pregnant.

I looked away. My eyes caught the fire in the hearth. “If you know your granddaughter would be burned to death when you light a fire, would you ever risk taking her anywhere near an open fire?”

“Of course not,” she retorted.

“That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to get my child away from the fire.”

A heavy silence fell between us. The only sound we could hear was the crackling blaze on the hearth. We stared at each other, and I knew, the moment her eyes glinted with determination, that she knew exactly what I was talking about.

Surviving.

“Well, eat the rest of your food. We don’t leave any to be wasted in this house,” she ordered. “I’ll go see if there are any clothes that would fit you.”

She got up and left me to finish my food.

When I was done, I took the initiative to clean the kitchen. That was the least I could do for all the things she had done for me. After this, I would continue to run. This was not safe enough. This was not far enough for Rhys. He would find me eventually. If it did not take long enough for her granddaughter to get to the city, then this place was not the right one.

For quite some time, I busied myself with kitchen chores. I hummed to myself, allowing the false sense of security to tame the alarm inside my head even only for a minute.

But when I finished, I jumped in place as the door was pushed open with a bang. Fear was immediately instilled.

I thought this was it.

Rhys found me.

I would never be able to run away from him.

But through my blurred vision with tears, I caught a glimpse of a woman about the size of me. She was breathing heavily, her chest moved up and down. She looked identical to the old woman, like the younger version of her. It crossed my mind that this must be Flint, the granddaughter.

“Who are you?” she asked breathlessly.

“I-I’m—“

I did not get to finish when the old lady came out while grunting. “Why on earth would you hurt the poor door like that?”

“Grandma!” Flint shrieked. “You will never believe what is going on in the city! Apparently, the Alpha had a mate that we never knew about and she escaped. Can’t you believe that? She ran away from the biggest Alpha in the world.”

My soul slowly left my body as she kept continuing.

“She ran away at night with a boat. The castle announced this news at the city hall. Whoever could give any hint about her whereabouts would be granted over five hundred gold—wait,” she rummaged through her belonging until she took out a piece of paper with big bold letters that said, “WANTED.”

“What is that?” the old woman frowned.

“Apparently, this is the portrait of his mate who escaped and—“ Flint frowned too.

Together, they looked like twins as they drifted their eyes toward me.

“And this is her,” she finished.

Realization dawned on the old woman’s face. “You’re the escaped mate of Alpha Rhys.”

And that was when it hit me. I was a wanted woman.